


Untitled Bartender!Liam AU

by unspoken_and_wild



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bartender!Ruby, F/M, Red Jewel, Smut, bar sex, bartender!liam, smut prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 15:52:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6335032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unspoken_and_wild/pseuds/unspoken_and_wild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: AU in which Liam and Ruby are both bartenders that tease each other and they end up having hot sex over the counter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled Bartender!Liam AU

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn’t help myself and decided to join in the Bartender!Liam smutfest proposed by lenfaz on tumblr, inspired by the bts pix for 5x15. Really excellent prompts with lots of Liam parings, but I couldn’t resist this one. I wrote and edited this in one steamy stretch, so please forgive any mistakes.

**Wednesday.**

  


Slow night. Not that Ruby’s complaining. Totally worth it to be able to spare a few extra moments chatting with Liam behind the bar between barstool-perched patrons. By her outfit you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a Saturday night. Damned if she’d show up to work in anything less than her absolute best, regardless of what day it is. Leather pants are everyday attire no matter what anyone says, and there is no reason not to wing the hell out of your eyeliner. And if she catches the eye of her impossibly hot coworker, so be it.

  


Ruby saunters behind the bar, catching Liam stretching on his long, dark denim clad legs so he could reach something on a particularly high shelf. She cranes her neck to the side and has to swallow the impulse to wolf whistle when his henley creeps up enough to expose a peek of skin above his waistband. She settles for a subtle closed-lipped, “Mmhmm,” in appreciation. Liam instantly drops his arms and snaps his attention toward her. “Don’t stop on account of me,” she teases. “Just admiring the view.”

  


Liam resumes his task and retrieves what he was looking for, a backup bottle of some rarely used liquor. “Wouldn’t dream of it. You just surprised me, is all.” His unflappable confidence returns quickly, but Ruby loves to see that she can knock him off guard from time to time. “If you had gotten here earlier, it would have been much easier. I could have just lifted you up to grab it for me.”

  


“Sounds like a lot of effort, to lift up a whole person just to reach a bottle,” Ruby replies.

  


“No trouble at all,” Liam returns coolly, stepping intimately close to her and settling his hands on her hips. Before Ruby has time to process the warm contact of his hands, Liam utters a barely audible, “Excuse me,” before gripping her tightly and lifting her feet off the ground like she weighed nothing. He pivoted and set her down on the other side of him, and moved smoothly to the ice bin at the other end of the narrow bar.

  


_ Damn him. _ Stunned and speechless, Ruby regains her composure and slides a cocktail napkin to the newest arrival at the bar. She focuses her eyes on the stranger in front of her and delivers her usual, “What’ll it be?”, but her mind never leaves the other bartender behind her.

  


All their months of flirting and innuendo had never escalated to touching.  _ Bold move, Captain. You’re on. _

  


**Thursday.**

  


Thirsty Thursday. Always a fun one. Not as busy as the weekend, but the Thursday night crowd comes with an enthusiasm to kick off the weekend early that always makes an entertaining night. Although Liam looks forward to Thursdays for a different reason. Ruby’s Thigh-High Thursdays. She never made any kind of declaration or anything, it was just a pattern he noticed. He notices everything she does.

  


Liam pours a pint from the tap, trying not to overflow the bloody thing completely getting lost in his own thoughts predicting Ruby’s ensemble. He was oscillating between a more casual shorts route, with her thigh-high socks and wedge trainers, or some unfairly distracting stockings and miniskirt, when the answer nearly blinds him as she struts through the door.  _ Miniskirt it is. _ God help him, Thursday is his favorite day of the week.

  


Ruby’s chosen a particularly deadly combination this week. The stockings are black, as is the skirt, which sways hypnotically with her hips as she saunters through the bar and departs to the back to drop off her personal items before work. Liam’s eyes track her as she rounds the corner and he’s thankful he was already leaning on the bar. The skin-tight maroon top that clings to her curves, though long sleeved, leaves little to the imagination with a plunging open back. 

  


Sometimes Liam had the sneaking suspicion she tortures him on purpose.  Perhaps he did deserve this one after his little acrobatic move yesterday.  _ Touché, lass. _

  


Liam stands at the register and closes out a tab when Ruby emerges. “Hey, Captain,” she chirps in her usual casual cadence, as if nothing were different. What began as a nickname to tease him about what a tight ship he ran behind the bar grew into a pet name he loved hearing tumble from her lips. 

  


“Looking stunning, as always, Ruby.” Liam tries to sound as nonchalant as possible. He was still a gentleman. He could offer a lady a compliment and still maintain composure without giving away how he notices that she’s dialed it up to eleven tonight.

  


“Thank you,” she replies, dipping into a tiny curtsy. Her wolfish grin made her look well pleased with herself, but Liam couldn’t go the whole night letting her believe she’d won this round.

  


Hours pass between them with nothing more than the usual sidelong glances and cheeky grins between them. But when Liam spots an opportunity, he cannot in good conscience pass it up. Ruby happened to be leaning over the bar on her elbows chatting with a patron, her skirt rising to expose even more of her creamy upper thigh. His hands just happened to be full of ice cold beer bottles and the space to pass behind her was quite narrow. As he passes behind her, one of the bottles barely grazes her exposed skin and instantly she bolts upright with a shriek. She whips around toward him, her hands flying to her backside to warm the chill. Her mouth still agape in shock, her wide eyes bore into his.

  


“Sorry, love, full hands. Had to get by,” Liam shrugs as he sets the bottles down and distributes them to the gentlemen who ordered them. He could have easily passed her back to back to shield her from accidental contact, but what fun would it be to pull punches in this game? 

  


**Friday.**

  


Happy hour grows into a full Friday night rush. Ruby barely has time in between refills and opening and closing tabs to pay attention to Liam. It’s a whirlwind. He seems to be cranking at a similar speed. She savors a brief moment while she waits for a receipt to print when she happens to catch him wipe a thin sheen of sweat from his brow with his sleeves. Which he then mercifully chooses to roll up his forearms.  _ Goddamn he is distracting. _

  


Ruby retrieves a few beer bottles from the cooler. In her frenzy, Ruby misplaced her bottle opener and instead of looking for hers, sees a perfectly reasonable opportunity to use Liam’s. His is very conveniently peeking out of his back pocket. She sidles up along side him, sets the bottles on the bar and deftly slides her hand into his back pocket. Sure she could have looped a finger through the handle and slid it out, but after the stunt he pulled yesterday?  _ No chance.  _ She smoothly cups what she is not surprised is a tight, perfectly formed ass through his jeans and grasps the bottle opener, dragging it out with purpose.

  


Liam nearly snaps his neck at the contact, but before he can get a word in, she innocently asks, “Can I borrow this? Thanks,” not waiting for an answer. She opens the bottles and returns the opener to his pocket without a word and continues about her business, feeling very satisfied with herself.

  


**Saturday.**

  


Saturday night is when the whole bar is in full swing. Everyone comes dressed to kill, the bar staff included. 

  


Liam was wearing the tighter of the jeans he owned, preying on Ruby’s apparent affinity for his backside. He also chose a blue button up, rolled up sleeves of course, and the buttons he made no promise would stay put by the end of the night. It does get hot rushing around behind that bar after all.

  


Ruby donned a button up as well, but had chosen a slightly different tactic. The few buttons that were done were hanging on for dear life, the lower half of the shirt tied in a knot, baring her midriff. Her red shorts hugged her hips, giving way to miles and miles of bare leg. Hardly atypical from her usual Saturday night wardrobe selection, but she knew this one was a winner.

  


The flurry of activity make the hours fly by. Ruby and Liam continue to do their jobs, but without time for dedicated subterfuge, the evening becomes a rapid fire exchange of “accidental” contact from both parties.  A wordless challenge between the two to see how egregious a gesture they could get away with and still call it excusable conduct between coworkers.  

  


Ruby reaches over his arm and dragged her hand back with her fingernails.  

  


Liam reaches behind her for a glass, his broad palm caressing the small of her back.

  


Ruby bends down to pick up a dropped pen, gliding her ass up his leg as she stands.

  


Liam stands behind her at the computer and cranes his neck around hers. He asks in a deep purring voice if she’s almost done so he can close out a tab, his breath hot in her ear.

  


They were fighting fire with fire. 

  


The hours grow small and the crowd thins out. “Last call” are the two most beautiful words Ruby has ever heard, called out by the curly haired adonis with a bar rag over his shoulder. 

  


The last of the tabs are closed out, drinks are pounded finished and Liam follows the last of the stumbling patrons to the door and locks it behind him.  “What a night,” he remarks.

  


“I’ll say,” Ruby replies with a deep exhale. There is something unmistakably pointed in her comment that Liam pretends to ignore. But he’s just as keyed up as she is and he’s not backing down now. But there was still a job to do. Work now, play later.

  


“It baffles me how this place can look so sparkling when they walk in and is always such a shambles when they leave,” he states as he surveys the chaos left behind in the empty bar. “What do you say, love, divide and conquer?”

  


“Sounds good. I’ll start here, you bus out there. Bring me glasses first, I’ll start washing.” Ruby turns on the tap to fill appropriate water, soaps and rinse tubs. The pint glasses are easy enough to load up in the dishwasher in back, but martini glasses and such have to be hand washed.  

  


Liam loads up the bar with all the stray glasses and begins collecting bottles and other refuse that needed to be taken out back. While wiping down the tables, he cannot peel his eyes off Ruby behind the bar, meticulously cleaning each and every bottle in the well, wiping the neck of each in smooth strokes.  

  


Ruby has the last of the glass racks put away and is down to the last of her closing chores. She is elbow deep in the sink rinsing the last of the glasses when Liam slides in beside her.  

  


“Nearly finished?” he asks, gently hip checking her.

  


“Almost, if someone would stop distracting me,” Ruby retorts, flicking water in Liam’s direction. The splash was barely even noticeable, but it was too late.  _ Gauntlet thrown. _

  


Liam reaches into the water and splashes a fair bit more at Ruby, which takes an enticing journey down the side of her neck and disappears between her breasts. “Turnabout is fair play, love,” he replies smugly.

  


What began as flicks and drops of water escalates into full-on handfuls of water being flung in all directions. Liam and Ruby each duck and parry to avoid the wet barrage, but remain tethered to the sink for their next attack. 

  


Finally, a poorly timed dodge on his part and a perfectly aimed splash on hers, Ruby’s next strike connects squarely with Liam’s chest. He freezes in shock. His shirt, now soaked completely through, clings to his body and he throws his hands up in surrender.

  


“Alright! I concede defeat!” He playfully declares.

  


Ruby plants her hands victoriously on her hips, although she did not escape the battle unscathed. The few watery hits that Liam landed have left her white shirt translucent in places, the pink lace of her bra peeking through. “And what do I win, exactly?” she asks, with a cheeky grin and crooked eyebrow.

  


“Choose your prize, milady. If it is within my power, I will grant it.” Liam’s voice is confident, but his pulse begins to race. 

  


Ruby slowly sways into Liam’s personal space and places her hands warmly on his chest. “Anything?” she asks coyly, her wide smokey eyes staring into his crystal blue ones.

  


Liam holds her gaze, speechless as she begins to work at unbuttoning his wet shirt. He manages to croak out a barely audible, “Aye.”

  


All the confirmation she needed, Ruby leans in to begin a trail of kisses down Liam’s chest that followed her fingers until all the remaining buttons were released. She stands back to gaze upon the glory beneath the wet fabric- a firm, sculpted chest and chiseled abs you could wash laundry on. She slides her arms admiringly up his chest and over his strong, broad shoulders until the offending shirt falls to the floor. God, he was everything she had imagined and so much more.

  


While beautiful to look at, a body like that isn’t one she can resist for long. Ruby flings her arms around Liam’s neck, crashing her mouth into his. Her fingers dive into his hair and that frenetic energy she had been staving off all night (and if she was honest, a lot longer than that) comes bursting out of her all at once.

  


Liam wraps his arms around Ruby’s trim waist and as they intertwined in a flurry of tongues and teeth and moans of gratification a long time coming. He steps her backward the short distance so her back is up against the bar. He braces an arm on the bar for support as he plants hot open mouthed kisses from her mouth to her jaw, and down her neck to her pulse point.

  


“So about my prize,” Ruby strains to say through panting breaths.

  


“Is this what you want? Because I would be more than happy to give it to you,” Liam punctuated between kisses.

  


“Liam,” Ruby grips his shoulders to look him in the eye. “I have wanted this for  _ so long _ ,” Ruby states desperately, the truth finally spilling forth.

  


“As have I,” Liam confesses.

  


“Then let’s call this a win-win,” Ruby replies, as she starts working at her own shirt buttons.

  


“Please, allow me.”  _ Liam Jones. Ever the gentleman. _

  


Liam releases the few buttons and the knot gives up easily so Ruby shrugs out of her shirt quickly, revealing the pink lace bra that had been teasing him all night. He cups a breast reverently with one hand, rolling back the lace with his thumb to expose a hardened peak beneath. Descending upon it and toying the nipple with his tongue, he reaches around her back to unfasten the clasp. It springs forth and Ruby flings it across the bar in eager haste. 

  


Ruby peels her body apart from his long enough to fish her hands between their them to find purchase on his belt. She unbuckles it swiftly to make quick work of the button and zipper beneath, and Liam returns the favor in kind. He shifts his jeans and boxer briefs down to his ankles in one swift motion and she shucks her shorts and panties completely.

  


Liam’s arms encircle Ruby once more, pulling her body flush against his. She kisses him fiercely, arching her body into his. He reaches around to hitch her leg up around his hip and Ruby is thankful for the bar behind her for stability. He rocks against her core, her arousal coating his straining length. Grinding and moving as one, their heavy breathing and moans of pleasure filling the air of the bar.

  


Pressure already coiling low within her, she feels she soon may resort to begging, but just as if he could read her very thoughts, Liam pulls back and slides inside, filling her completely. “Oh God!” She cries as a wave of ecstasy cascades through her entire body.  

  


Liam stills momentarily before resuming his rhythm, allowing her to adjust to his size. She feels like heaven around him, warm and wet and welcoming.  

  


He thrusts a few times before hitching her other leg around his hip to improve the angle. She hooks one ankle at the small of his back and braces the heel of the other on the edge of the well. She releases one of her arms to brace herself on the bar as he drives mercilessly into her. His groans are punctuated by a string of curses, drawing them both closer to the precipice of bliss.

  


Liam’s pace becomes more hasty and erratic and Ruby can feel her peak approaching, but just beyond her reach. He brings a hand around to press his thumb to where they are joined, giving her just the boost she needs. It only takes a few deft circles at her center to send her careening over the edge of oblivion. Liam is not far behind, a few more thrusts and a shout of euphoria rips from his throat as he grips her firmly for dear life through his own release. 

  


Liam drops his forehead to Ruby’s shoulder as he catches his breath. She cards her fingers through his hair adoringly. No doubt he can feel the pounding of her heart. He slips from her and she regains her footing on the floor, but still holds the bar for support.

  


For as long as she had been working with Liam Jones, and as many scenarios she had played out in her mind in that very bar, the real thing was head and shoulders above what she could have ever imagined.

  


“You, darling...” Liam declares, still regaining his breath, “...are a wonder. A bloody marvel.”

  


“So are you,” Ruby replies, beginning to gather up their wayward clothes. “Certainly will make work a bit more interesting from now on.”   
  
Liam returns a knowing smile and plants a firm kiss to her lips. A whole new level of possibilities already starts flooding their minds. Neither of them would ever complain about coming to work again. 

  



End file.
